The RedMagic 12 Pro Plus is here and it blew me away with its insane specs

The RedMagic 12 Pro Plus has just launched in China and it has improved upon the RedMagic 11 Pro in a myriad of exciting ways. If you’re in the market for the best gaming smartphone that money can buy, you need only wait until next month when RedMagic will provide details for the phone’s global launch.

RedMagic 12 Pro Plus specs

Pushing the limits of what a smartphone is capable of yet again, the RedMagic 12 Pro Plus has the following hardware powering it:

• Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6
• The proprietary RedCore R5 gaming chip
• A massive 8,400 mAh battery
• An industry-first RGB liquid cooling setup
• And the TurboFan 5.0

Aside from the raw power of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor, the RedCore R5 chip allows for advanced lighting effects such as ray tracing, ambient occlusion, and global illumination. These are terms that every PC gamer will instantly recognize.

The R5 chip also supports frame interpolation, allowing the phone to add extra frames to improve the frame rate of a game. This means that, in the rare case where this phone isn’t managing to hit a high frame rate for a particular game, it can still make it appear like it is.

What sets the RedMagic 12 Pro Plus apart?

In addition to the powerful hardware, the RedMagic 12 Pro Plus has some neat features that set it apart in the smartphone market.

For starters, the phone has the industry’s first-ever 185 Hz screen with an under-display camera. This is a noticeable jump up from the 144 Hz display of the RedMagic 11 Pro and it’s a pretty sizable panel at 6.85 inches with bezel measurements coming in at less than a millimeter.

Additionally, the phone features a very unique RGB liquid cooling setup on the rear. Liquid cooling isn’t new to RedMagic phones but this time the loop has decorative LED lighting that responds to in-game activity and the entire setup covers much more of the phone’s internals.

The TurboFan 5.0, meanwhile, reaches a whopping 25,500 rotations per minute. Early tests of the phone have shown unwaveringly high-tier performance in the most popular smartphone games of today.

Some other noteworthy mentions include:

• AI-assisted frame rate management
• A PC emulator to play AAA games directly from Steam
• Liquid Metal 4.0
• 120W wired and 80W wireless charging
• A very impressive 96.3 percent screen-to-body ratio
• And a weight of only 223 grams with a thickness of 8.5 mm

Availability and pricing

The RedMagic 12 Pro Plus is now available in China and starts at around $1,045 USD when converted from Chinese Yuan for the variant with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. If you want a little more, the 16 GB + 512 GB and 16 GB + 1 TB variants are going for around $1,195 and $1,344 respectively.

The RedMagic 12 Pro Plus ships in the following three colors:

• Nightfreeze
• Subzero
• Skyfrost

There is also a collectible Golden Saga variant of the RedMagic 12 Pro Plus. This version will feature a carbon pattern, a gold-colored liquid cooling loop, and additional detailing in gold and silver. The Golden Saga RedMagic 12 Pro Plus will have 24 GB of RAM and a terabyte of storage, though pricing and further details are yet to be announced.

However, as has been the case in the past, a global version hasn’t come out just yet. The international version of the RedMagic 12 Pro Plus will launch under the name RedMagic 12 Pro. Details on pricing, regional configurations, availability, and differences in specifications will be revealed on November 3.

One of the most fascinating phones of the year

Personally, I have always found the RedMagic phones utterly fascinating. Not only do they punch way above their weight for the price, but they’re also always such interesting devices.

For example, the RedMagic 12 Pro Plus has a perfect display, in my eyes. This is the kind of cutout-free display that Apple wanted to source for the 20th anniversary of the iPhone next year.

Granted, RedMagic doesn’t use facial recognition tech like Face ID does, but it did prove that the camera can be hidden beneath the display flawlessly. I admit, the selfie camera on the RedMagic phones isn’t the best, but its rival on the iPhone Duo isn’t winning any awards any time soon, either.

Then you have the massive 8,400 mAh battery and the super fast charging speeds. Or the insane performance in-game using the stylish liquid cooling setup. You’ve got shoulder buttons, a ton of RAM when phone manufacturers are scaling that back, and a completely flat rear that has absolutely zero wobble.

It’s just a really interesting lineup of phones and you couldn’t do better if you really care about the best gaming experience on your phone. If there’s one thing I don’t like here, it’s that RedMagic has finally given in and removed the headphone jack. However, if you wanted the best audio possible with the least amount of delay, that was kind of essential.

Keep up with RedMagic's latest releases:

• RedMagic Astra 2
• RedMagic 11S Pro

Mint Mobile's 6-month plans now cost $10/mo

$10 /mo

$35

$25 off (71%)

Mint Mobile is celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a special offer on its six-month subscription plans. For a limited time, you can get your preferred tier (6GB, 17GB, 23GB or unlimited) for just $10/mo. That saves you between 50% and 71% on the carrier's mobile plans, making it way easier to recommend.

Buy at Mint Mobile